Magistrate Hernán Crisosto established that the dictatorship's intelligence agents participated as perpetrators in the aggravated kidnapping of Bernardo Castro López, who later appeared on a supposed list of people killed in clashes in Argentina.

On January 6, the minister on extraordinary visit to the Santiago Court of Appeals designated for human rights violation cases, Hernán Crisosto, issued a sentence in the investigation into the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Bernardo de Castro López, an event that began on September 14, 1974.

In the case, the magistrate sentenced the following former agents of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) as perpetrators to 13 years in prison: Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepúlveda, César Manríquez Bravo, Pedro Octavio Espinoza Bravo, Gerardo Ernesto Urrich González, Manuel Andrés Carevic Cubillos, and Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann.

Likewise, Minister Crisosto sentenced the following individuals as perpetrators of aggravated kidnapping to 10 years in prison: Orlando Manzo Durán, Pedro René Alfaro Fernández, Armando Segundo Cofré Correa, Héctor Alfredo Flores Vergara, Enrique Tránsito Gutiérrez Rubilar, Hugo del Tránsito Hernández Valle, Manuel Rivas Díaz, Risiere del Prado Altez España, Juan Evaristo Duarte Gallegos, Manuel Heriberto Avendaño González, Alfredo Orlando Moya Tejeda, Alejandro Francisco Astudillo Adonis, Demóstenes Eugenio Cárdenas Saavedra, Hernán Patricio Valenzuela Salas, and Alejandro Francisco Molina Cisternas. Meanwhile, he sentenced Nelson Eduardo Iturriaga Cortez and José Dorohi Hormazábal Rodríguez as accomplices to 4 years in prison, without benefits; and acquitted Basclay Zapata Reyes.

THE RULING

According to the resolution, Minister Hernán Crisosto considered the following facts proven: “That on the afternoon of September 14, 1974, Bernardo de Castro López, a militant of the Socialist Party, was detained at his home located at Calle Bilbao No. 1236, in the commune of Providencia, and was taken to a barracks of the Chilean Investigative Police where he was interrogated and later handed over to DINA agents, who took him to the clandestine detention center known as ‘Venda Sexy,’ located at Calle Irán No. 3037, in Santiago, and was subsequently transferred to the clandestine detention center known as ‘Cuatro Álamos,’ located at Calle Canadá No. 3000, in the commune of Santiago, facilities that were guarded by armed guards and to which only DINA agents had access,” he states in his first point. In a second point, he notes that “During his stay at the ‘Venda Sexy’ barracks, De Castro López remained without contact with the outside world, blindfolded and tied up, being continuously subjected to interrogations under torture by DINA agents operating in said barracks for the purpose of obtaining information regarding members of his political group, in order to proceed with the detention of the members of that organization, an isolation that continued at the Cuatro Álamos Center.” “That the last time the victim De Castro López was seen alive by other detainees occurred on an undetermined day in the month of October 1974, and he has remained forcibly disappeared to this date,” he states in the third point. In the fourth, that “the name of Bernardo de Castro López appeared on a list of 119 people, published in the national press after it appeared on a list published in the Argentine magazine LEA, dated July 15, 1975, which reported that Bernardo de Castro López had died in Argentina, along with 59 other people belonging to leftist groups, due to internal disputes that had arisen among those members; and that the publications that declared the victim De Castro López dead had their origin in disinformation maneuvers carried out by DINA agents abroad.” As a fifth point, he established that “the facts established in the previous consideration constitute the crime of aggravated kidnapping of Bernardo de Castro López, provided for and sanctioned in Article 141, paragraph 3 of the Penal Code of the time, in relation to the first paragraph of the same article, since the deprivation of liberty or confinement of the victim lasted for more than 90 days, and therefore caused serious harm to the person, which ultimately resulted in his disappearance.”

Source: La Nación, January 8, 2015

Operation Colombo: One of the Most Wanted Men for Human Rights Violations Arrested

The former DINA member had been a fugitive since 2016 after being sentenced for the crimes of homicide and aggravated kidnapping. Personnel from the Location of Persons Brigade (Briup) of the Investigative Police (PDI) arrested Demóstenes Cárdenas Saavedra this Monday, one of the men most wanted for human rights violations.

Cárdenas had been a fugitive since 2016, when he was sentenced for the crimes of homicide and aggravated kidnapping by the Minister on Visit Mario Carroza, in the context of Operation Colombo. Commissioner Manuel Fuentes, head of the Briup, detailed that the former DINA official had been missing for two years, during which time he changed his physical appearance.

After four months of investigation, the PDI managed to locate Cárdenas in the commune of Padre Hurtado. The detainee will be taken to the Gendarmerie to be notified of his sentence. Demóstenes Cárdenas Saavedra was sentenced to 10 years for the disappearance of Bernardo Castro, which occurred in 1974.

In addition, he was sentenced to 10 years and one day for the kidnapping of Stalin Aguilera Peñaloza; and to 3 years and one day for the kidnapping of Modesto Espinoza Soto and Roberto Aranda Romero.

Source: 24horas.cl, November 5, 2018

Piñera Grants Pardon to Former DINA Agent with Terminal Cancer

Despite the decision, the inmate will not be able to return home, as he was convicted of three other crimes framed within "Operation Colombo." "This presidential decision sets a very relevant precedent from a humanitarian point of view," asserted lawyer Raúl Meza.

Photo: ATON (Referential) Cárdenas remained a fugitive for two years before entering prison to serve his sentence on November 6, 2018. President Sebastián Piñera granted a pardon to former DINA agent Demóstenes Cárdenas Saavedra, 65, who suffers from terminal cancer, for "humanitarian reasons." As reported by El Mercurio, the former agent was a civilian official of the Chilean Air Force (FACh) and was sentenced to 10 years and one day in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of communist militant Stalin Aguilera Peñaloza, framed within the so-called "Operation Colombo," an operation set up by the DINA between 1974 and 1975 to cover up the disappearance of more than one hundred opponents of the military dictatorship. Cárdenas remained a fugitive for two years before entering prison to serve his sentence on November 6, 2018. The convict's family requested the pardon because he suffers from terminal-stage cancer, for which he is hospitalized at the Air Force Hospital, a request that was accepted by the President. "This presidential decision sets a very relevant precedent from a humanitarian point of view, strengthening the unrestricted respect for the human dignity of an elderly person in the final moments of his life, as he suffers from a terminal illness," maintained the representative lawyer and president of the Pinochetist movement Fuerza Nacional, Raúl Meza. Despite the pardon, Cárdenas will not be able to return to his home because, between the pardon request and Piñera's response, the defendant was convicted in three other cases related to the same Operation Colombo and involving different victims: Héctor Zúñiga Tapia, Bernardo Castro López, and Vicente Palominos Benítez.

Source: cooperativa.cl, May 9, 2020

Human Rights Convict Who Received Presidential Pardon Two Weeks Earlier Dies

He was in the final stage of terminal cancer and had three other convictions.

At the FACh Hospital, a victim of terminal-stage cancer, former Air Force civilian official Demóstenes Cárdenas Saavedra (65) passed away the night before last. Cárdenas was a DINA agent and the justice system convicted him for the aggravated kidnapping of communist militant Stalin Aguilera Peñaloza, in the context of the so-called Operation Colombo, which occurred in 1974.

He was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years and one day in prison, but he entered Colina prison to serve his sentence on November 6, 2018, after remaining a fugitive for two years. His family had requested the pardon in August of last year due to his advanced cancer—he was given six months to live—and it was granted eight months later.

But he could not make use of the benefit because he had three other convictions related to the same Operation Colombo, for which he was not pardoned. The family learned of the benefit granted through Exempt Decree Number 806 of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights one week before he passed away.

His appeal to the Court for house arrest was to be heard next week. Second frustrated pardon: This was the second pardon in human rights cases granted by President Sebastián Piñera during his government and, like the first, it could not be carried out.

The first occurred in 2018 with former Army Colonel René Cardemil, who requested the pardon in March, died on April 7, and that same day the family received the news that he had been granted the benefit.

He was imprisoned in Punta Peuco, sentenced to 10 years and one day for the homicide of six people in the Túnel Lo Prado sector in October 1973, and died of prostate cancer. The former DINA agent was serving his sentence in Colina 1 for the aggravated kidnapping of communist militant Stalin Aguilera Peñaloza, in the context of the so-called Operation Colombo that occurred in 1974.

Source: emol.cl, May 15, 2020